Real Wedding – Jessica & Danny, Woodend VIC

Faith, family, friends and food were the key elements to the stunning celebration of Jessi and Danny who used the Macedon Ranges as their beautiful backdrop.

Drawing on their deep connection, their celebration centered on the magic that is love. Throughout their planning they took time to appreciate the bonding they experienced during the process as they made considered decisions to host a day that truly reflected them.

Their friend, Jackson Grant, captured all the moments, so get scrolling for some love-filled inspiration.

In Jessi and Danny’s words…

The meeting.

In the weirdest and most wonderful way, we feel we have known each other for decades, but in human years we have been together now for three and a half years. In a period filled with many chapters, as with any great thing, we hopefully anticipate all our best years to be ahead!

The ‘one’.

We were engaged for approximately 15 months, in a time that simultaneously moved at light speed and slow motion. It was a beautiful period, and truly allowed us to embrace, absorb and cherish the covenant and commitment we were about to undertake. What a time.

The proposal.

The proposal was a sweet reflection of some of the things we most adore. Faith, family, friends and food! A moment in time that took three months to coordinate, as a boyfriend then and husband now, it was to me an amazing opportunity to author a fairytale moment for my bride to be. Carefully ensuring that everyone knew their part, I got Jessi to think she was going on a brunch date with her best friend (and maid of honour), at the end of this she was a handed a letter that I wrote, then as they walked back to the car, they bumped into another friend, who then stole her away to another destination that I had set up. This happened two more times, to spots that were significant in our journey thus far. Our first date, our first kiss and finally to the top of Mount Macedon, a place that had been the iconic setting of many of our beautiful day trips. It was here that I awaited my princess in front of the overarching cross. Using all the notes I had taken in the preceding two years, I ensured our amazing photographer and friend Jackson Grant was there to capture the moment. I’m so glad I did, because in the rush of emotions of the moment, I swear I blacked out as I asked Jessi to marry me. All of our family then jumped out from behind the freezing hedges to come and celebrate a momentous occasion in all our lives. We then all filed down to the beautiful Mt Macedon hotel to share a meal, before I whisked my new fiancé to a night at the luxurious crown.

The dress.

Oh my dress, what a story! To keep it short, I was going to get it made from scratch from a friend who is a designer. I honestly struggled to find a dress I was in love with as I’m extremely particular with my style. On the day I was on my way to her house to start up some ideas I drove past Designer Bridal House on Sydney Road in Brunswick, Melbourne. Something told me to go in. I went in and found a sample dress that was completely unique and had elements of what I was after. Chatting to the lovely ladies I found out I was able to alter many aspects of the dress and the designer who made them was happy to change most parts of the dress to accommodate the bride. So, there I was, that morning basically creating my perfect dress. And that’s how I said yes to the dress!

Favourite moment.

The whole day ended up being even more filled with overwhelming love than we ever could’ve imagined. For a long time before the wedding, Jess hoped that I would possibly shed a tear as she walked down the aisle. Being a typical man, I hadn’t given my tear ducts a work out in a while, so I couldn’t promise to cry on the day.

I remember so vividly the moment the song begun that would signal the beginning of the ceremony. In that moment I looked up, thanked God for all the love in the room, and seriously tried my best to hold back the tears that were ready to erupt. For a moment in time, I was aware of all the love around me, all the relationships I had built up into the moment, and all the dreams that were to come. It was honestly one of the most surreal moments of the day and of my life.

Meaning of marriage.

Such a fantastic question that could have so many answers. To be honest, we believe a marriage is a devoted covenant, a one flesh union. The most intimate of relationships, where a man and a woman present themselves as one, willing to love, sacrifice and serve each other. We are obviously at the beginning of this journey, but are already grasping just how much of a gift marriage is. To share, all your ins and outs, fears, feelings and dreams with someone, is a blessing that we dream will grow us and everyone around us.

Wedding soundtrack.

Our aisle song was Multiplied by a little-known America folk band called Needtobreathe. We love their music, and the message in the song, was just perfect for the essence of our dream marriage. Our first dance song was Perfect by Ed Sheeran and was just that. We also had a father daughter dance which was driven by the song Amazing Day by Coldplay, who are also close to our heart.

Funny stories (or near disasters).

On a day with as many moving parts as a wedding there are bound to be countless hilarious stories that come out. One that we still laugh about now, but could’ve been potentially disastrous involved our lovely makeup and hair artists. As many brides would know, getting the hair and makeup done for all the girls is a task that tends to begin quite early in the day. Our one was scheduled to start at 6am, which meant our artists had to leave their own places at unspeakable hours to reach our semi-rural location. What made it even tougher, was the fact that the girls were staying in a beautiful residence that wasn’t on the map. Hilariously the makeup artists ended up lost in some woods early in the morning of the wedding without any reception, somehow by the grace of God they just happened to run into another car whilst completely lost. They banded together, got reception and arrived ready to work at 6:10am. The bride and the bridesmaids knew nothing of this until later that day. Crazy story, but moments like these are moments we look back on and thank God whilst having a good chuckle.

Planning surprises.

Surprisingly – over communication! It was something we knew was going to be a big part of planning, but to the extent we had to learn this we would have not grown as much as we did in our 17 months of being engaged. It was amazing. We had a shared google drive calendar that we wrote everything in. Danny always made sure he told me where he was up to with the areas of the wedding he was taking care of and vice versa. He was amazing. To my surprise Danny and I grew so much closer in the process of planning our big day and really enjoyed it looking back.

Words of wisdom.

Enjoy it. Be there for each other. Planning a wedding is such an opportunity to learn and grow. Seeing it as that will help immensely when the hard moments come, and trust us, they will. We were lucky enough to be engaged for 15 months, so we really had time to regularly stop and digest all that was going on in us and around us. This is such a great habit that we have taken into our marriage, and seriously is one of our favourite things to do, especially over some smashed avo on toast. We are really glad we had a long(er) engagement. The type of people we both are, having that time to plan and execute such a significant day whilst enjoying the process was aided so much by the time we had. We know not everyone can or wants to do this, but this was the best thing we did, because it allowed us to further, learn, love and respect each other.

Final words.

Jessi and I both love God and have been brought up in Christian households. For us it was paramount to have a day in which we shared our faith and the most core of our values with our most loved people. We had our good friend, counselor and mentor Kalem speak to us and all our guests on the beauty, depth and strength of love which drove our ceremony. We had our parents and family friends pray for us, and really dedicated our marriage as a covenant to mirror the relationship we have with God. We incorporated many religious traditions, but in ways that felt truly personal to us.